I like the unknown of what campsite I'll end up with when I go to a lake.  it leaves a bit of...I'm not sure of the right word....adventure?...to a day.  Kind of a randomness that I enjoy.  Having said that, my wife and I got completely boned on Booth Lake in September, some people must have been off permit, and we traversed the lake for 2 hours looking for an open site but there were none, and we had to stay on a portage, which really.....we were lucky, it wasn't a bad place to put a tent, but still....incredibly annoying.  I like to think site specific reservations would reduce the number of off permit campers, but in those cases when it does happen, you'd know for sure whom it is.  I guess that's good, but it could lead to some pretty heated wilderness arguments.

two stories come to mind. 

One was, many years ago, I lived in a small neighborhood in a rural community.  Two girls show up at my front door (late teens, early 20's),  I think they were pollsters or maybe they were selling something, I really don't recall, but my scam radar went off super-loud in my head.  The story was that the guy who was supposed to pick them up from this neighborhood hadn't shown up, could they use my phone.  I offered to call for them. They provided the number, I got the phone and dialed up, fully expecting scam.  I was convinced I was being set up, and I'm sure my body language conveyed that.  Whoever answered the phone said that the driver had been involved in a car accident, so somebody else was coming to pick up the girls, and was 45 minutes away.  I relayed that bit of news to the two young ladies, with a hint of I-don't-believe-the-story in my voice.  But the reaction of the girls was so pure and stunned and worried for the guy that I immediately knew the girls were telling the truth.

The substitute driver was about 45 minutes away, I had an appointment and had to leave, so I couldn't really offer them help and they said they'd just go out and wait for him.  A few minutes later I drove past the girls, they were waiting on the corner of the secondary road and the road that lead into our neighborhood....the rain was just starting and they were unprepared.  I felt lower than dirt, and cynical.  You just never know.  The shakiest story can be straight as an arrow.

The other one was also in the 90's, when I took my one and only canoe trip with dad.  We got out at the Magnetawan access point, and encountered two Polish couples.  They'd taken a trip from Rain and exited a few days later here, thinking they could walk from one access point to the other.  Nope.  Could I drive the guys over to get their car.  I looked at dad, he says "Its your car".  That day it was pretty clear right off the bat their story was true.  Gave

If I'm just out for a paddle near home, I'll usually just stick the key in a zippered pants pocket.  When I'm taking a longer paddle, or on a canoe trip, I stick the key on a small platform at the top of the spring above the front tire.  It it bowl-shaped, so the key cradles in there and can't be seen.  It is protected from weather, but yeah, an ambitious person could find the key and have at it.  Still, the motivations for breaking in are two:  1) they want the car (160K miles on the 2013 RAV4, there are better targets in the lot,)  2) smash and grab....ok, my wallet is in there, if you dig around you'll find it I guess, but the presence or absence of the key is immaterial to that.  If the key isn't handy a rock is.  If it were a smash and grab situation, I would imagine they'd do it in the dead of night and go through as many cars as they could until an alarm went off.

Also, if I took the key with me, I know I'd be checking for it regularly.  Is it still where I put it?  Is it still where I put it?  Is it still where I put it?  I kind of like cutting myself off from it entirely. 

Glad to help; hope it helped!

131 people have looked at this post, one book got claimed, the others didn't, so I'll withdraw the remaining two.

We're packing things up to move a few miles down the road and things are happening pretty fast, so...

So - the post is closed.  Thanks for looking!

Hi - these are freebies.  I'm in Buffalo, I'll mail them to you in the US or Canada, don't worry about reimbursing the postage....ok, if guilt wracks your soul you can reimburse the postage but really don't sweat it.

1) "the 8th revision of the Checklist and seasonal status of the birds of algonquin park."  I have checked off 13 birds in the booklet. 2018.
2) "algonquin provincial park management plan."  It is about 75 pages long, very cool book from 1998, and has a large zoning Map in an envelope glued to the back cover.  This is a real A-Z book on the park.
3) "fishing in algonquin park." I paid the princely sum of $1.50 in 1985.  The park used to have these interesting booklets on a variety of topics, kind of a series - mammals, amphibians, trees, and of course this one on fish.

Is that the stretch between little doe and Bluejay as you head toward the vanishing pond portage?

Thanks for the replies, everyone.  It looks like most everyone else is also in "I dunno" shoulder-shrug mode, just like me.  My initial thought was I'd throw the no bugzone in the car and play it by ear, but experience tells me if I put something in the car, I cave in and take it in the canoe.  I'm betting I chicken out and take "everything".  I dislike carrying the extra weight, but the thing about the nobugzone is it is also a substitute for a tarp, so even if there's no bug use for it, there can be a weather use for it.  (This also explains why I couldn't find the stakes for my tarp yesterday....they were with the NBZ...).